Page 20 of Burn (Smoke)


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“Your mom was there. She recognized the symptoms and called 911 immediately. The doctor said her fast thinking was going to mean a big difference in his recovery.”

Genesis leaned back enough to look up at me. “He could have died,” she whispered. “That’s all I keep thinking.”

“He didn’t though. That’s what you need to keep thinking. He is going to live.”

She gave me a sad smile. “Why does hearing you say it make it easier to believe? You’re not a doctor.”

I leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose. “Because you know I’d bring down death, God, and anything else that tried to take someone you loved away from you.”

A soft laugh escaped her, and she shook her head. “As crazy as that sounds, for some reason, I believe it.”

I fucking hoped it was true. Right now, I would say just about anything to ease her fear.

“I got waters!” Quinn announced.

Genesis let go of me and turned to her other friend as Quinn walked over to her with a bottle in her hand.

“You look better,” Quinn told her. “Seems Kye has magical abilities.”

Genesis let out a small laugh and took the water. “He does.”

Six

Kye

September 30

Part of me felt guilty for smiling like a damn fool, but, fuck, I was happy. Genesis was curled up on the sofa beside me, watching a movie in my mom’s old house. Her things were all officially moved back to Ocala. Her sewing machine was on the kitchen table, where it belonged. The fact that she’d dropped this semester when it had just begun and wasn’t registering to go back next semester bothered me because I knew she wanted her fashion and design degree. But convincing her not to stay here and help her mom with her dad was pointless.

Theo was going to be in the hospital for weeks, maybe months. He had to go through physical therapy and speech therapy. Once he met some goals, he could come home, but even then, he was going to need help and physical therapy appointments. Genesis wasn’t leaving her mom to handle all of this alone.

Convincing her to stay in my mom’s old house had been a little difficult. In the end, Alice had helped with that. Saying she’d need Genesis’s bedroom to sleep in for herself once they got the master bedroom set up for Theo. I hadn’t wanted to explain that my mom’s house had bulletproof windows and a security system that went well beyond what most homes had. My dad had had it installed when he bought this house for Mom to raise me in when she refused to live with him. Genesis assumed the security system was a typical one. She did use it when she was there alone, and when I needed to check on her, all I had to do was look at the app on my phone. It gave me peace of mind when she was in town. The deeper I got into the family dealings, the more I worried about her safety.

The past few days had been hell. I’d never had to be involved in killing a woman, and, damn, it was hard to witness. Even if the bitch had deserved it. Blaise did most of it, but I had to watch. I kept hearing my mom in my head, telling me this was why she didn’t want this life for me. When I had to hold a fucking gun to another girl’s back while Levi threatened her to stay the fuck away from Saxon, it made me physically ill. She was trembling. Levi knew as well as I did that the girl wasn’t bad, like her brother. She wasn’t dangerous. She was just the sister of a gang member who had kidnapped Aspen. Levi had been fucked in the head over that even though Aspen was back home and back in his bed.

The darkness of this week had only been bearable because I had Genesis here. She didn’t ask when I came to her with the twisted shit in my eyes. I knew she saw it, but she never said a word. Instead, she just eased me. Made me smile. Reminded me that I had someone so fucking pure in my life.

“I’m hungry,” she said, looking up at me.

“Tell me what you want, and I’ll order it.”

She scrunched up her nose, and I realized I wanted to kiss it. I kept kissing her. Not her lips, but anywhere I could get away with platonically laying my lips on her. The nose was a popular spot. I should stop it, but, damn, it had been a hard few months. She’d gotten so busy with the stupid nameless fucker that she rarely called or texted me. Then, when I was going into a dark place from her absence, she’d called me, upset over the bastard.

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